Eastern Railroad Discussion > Action in an urban helper district - Richmond, VA

I used to live in Richmond, VA, and I was fascinated by the Bellwood Sub, which features an urban helper district. This 2-part video is a compilation of several trains assualting the grade from many locations. Most of both videos is engines in run 8, with horns blaring, so be prepared!

I'll attempt a quick explanation of this peculiar piece of trackage. Acca Yard is where the RF&P joins the ex-ACL A-line, which skirts the west side of Richmond on a relatively easy alignment. The ex-SAL main from Acca splits off at "AY", and perhaps a mile away, has a crossover at a location called Hermitage Rd. As I understand it, that is the top of the grade. From that point, there are two tracks that both wind down a curvy, steep grade to Main St. Station, but don't have another useful crossover and are effectively single track mains. One track continues South through the Triple Crossing, and on the grade, only has locals and a turn job, shown in this video.

The other track goes through Rivanna Junction to connect with the ex-C&O to Newport News. It has 4 Amtrak trains, Q302/303, H773/744, and grain and coal loads that head up to AY to turn South onto the A-Line. The latter trains require helpers for the grade, which is short but stiff. With the Clinchfield closure more unit trains are headed this way, and posters here have noted that CSX is trying to run their monster trains up this grade. In this video, you'll see 70 car grain trains, "double" 130 car grain trains, medium and short mixed freights. Otherwise they were running 110 car or so coal trains...then.

This old post explains a bit more of the track layout: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,2215475,2215489#msg-2215489

The video heads geographically east to west, up the grade. The first train is a (uncommon) short coal train, diverging at Rivanna junction to eventually join the Bellwood sub. The next shot is where the grade starts, and where the Buckingham Branch rail spilts off (also shown in the photo.) In this case, you'll hear the helpers working way harder. From there the other mix of trains are shown at Hospital Street, Valley Rd., a hillside location, and Chamberlyne Parkway.

The last clip of this video is pretty special, if you know the route. It shows an especially heavy F723 turn from Hopewell lugging up the grade with no helper on the through ex-SAL main, while right behind it a grain train struggles on the other main. The odds of this catch were really slim!

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Part II - starting at Brook Rd, another day's F723 roars by, with boxcars rocking on the jointed rail. On another day, a local on the same track heads under Lombardy St. On a seperate day, a grain train passes by the same spot. Next, a grain train and a local at Deened St., which has be cut out as a road crossing. Finally, of the railroad shots, another double grain train is shown near Hermitage Rd., as well a regular grain train.

Lastly, I included a clip taken out the back of an Amtrak train to show AY, where the Bellwood Sub connects. The end of that shot shows the diverging route to the left that coal and grain take to turn south. How they do that with 220 car trains while cutting off helpers, I don't even understand (if you know the distances involved.) Also note the wonky track arrangement the Amtrak train creeps through, which is definetly part of the reason the schedule 30 minutes for Amtrak to go the 7 miles between Staples Mills and Main St.

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I liked the sound of the rain in your first video and the end of your second video. Great work.
John

Great post, lots of long hood forward.

Thanks! Some of the long hood forward might be that local/turn power wasn't turned before coming back to Acca Yard.

Nice videos!  I've only been to Richmond once, so a question and a couple of observations:

1.  Is the CSX line the one that goes past Hollywood Cemetary?  When we were visiting, we went to the cemetary to see all the Civil War graves and I noticed the double track line that ran adjacent.  But since I never saw a train while we were there, I'm not sure if that line was one of the ones you described.

2.  Is it my imagination or did the cars have significantly less graphitti on them?  Is that a predominently western issue (which I'm much more familiar with) and not so much of an eastern issue?

3.  That last scene in the first video appeared to be an engineers nightmare - following within about 300 feet of a local on an adjacent track, coming into a grade crossing and being on a curve with vegetation.  It was obvious the engineer knew there was a potential safety situation, cause he laid on the horn a LONG time right after the local cleared the crossing and he was approaching it!

Thanks for posting!

Wow, this was great! Made my morning. The audio was superb! Wish our models could sound as good as this little iPad mini I'm using.

Thanks,

Chris

How steep is it?

Posted from iPhone

Extremely well done video. Well edited.  Certainly gets your story across.

Marty Bernard

Thanks for the comments. I'd recommend a look at the posts and discussions Totallamer started about CSX running 220 car trains up this grade and how well that has gone, like this one: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,3913259

I'm not sure what exact percantage the grade is, but I know it is over 1%

Railfool03 Wrote:
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>
> 1.  Is the CSX line the one that goes past
> Hollywood Cemetary?  When we were visiting, we
> went to the cemetary to see all the Civil War
> graves and I noticed the double track line that
> ran adjacent.  But since I never saw a train
> while we were there, I'm not sure if that line was
> one of the ones you described.

No, but it isn't too far away. That is the Rivanna Sub, ex-C&O, from Gladstone, VA, to Rivanna Junction, where the Peninsula Sub to Newport News begins. It is double track as it comes into Richmond, and hosts all loaded coal, grain, and oil trains, Q302/303, and oil empties. Coal and grain that heads south on the grade in the video passes by Hollywood Cemetary first, goes into Fulton yard, the power runs around, and helpers are added, then it goes up the grade and ultimately crosses over the Rivanna Sub on the big concrete arch A-Line bridge.
>
> 2.  Is it my imagination or did the cars have
> significantly less graphitti on them?  Is that a
> predominently western issue (which I'm much more
> familiar with) and not so much of an eastern
> issue?

These videos are mostly 5 years old, which may be a part of it. Most cars are also in unit train service, which seems to get less graffiti.





>
> Thanks for posting!

Nice post Jeff!

Bruce

Thanks Bruce!

-Jeff